A decade ago, during the most difficult time
of loss, sadness and questioning I have ever experienced, I came home to behold
my own Moses-like burning bush moment of peace. Our forsythia was in full bloom,
affirming most clearly with glowing yellowness that life was here, that it is
often good, that even on fouler days with frost in the air
and snow piling up about the roots, that life itself would
flow through its’ branches and burst into color and life. I
remain unconvinced, as were Job and Qoheleth, seeing that evil often triumphs
and the good undeservedly suffer injustice.

This May 4th I shall again be at
the site of the Kent State 1970 shootings. I was arrested there in 1977 with 192
others attempting unsuccessfully to stop Kent State's construction of a large
gym on significant portions of Blanket Hill. I shall march around campus with
hundreds of others holding candles in memory of Allison Krause, Jeffery Miller,
Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder. Later, I shall hold a candle where Sandra
Scheuer died, 110 yards from the Guardsmans’ M-1 rifle that killed her. I met
Sandy’s parents that summer we were arrested, my first personal connection
with the sadness of May 4th, 1970. With that candle I hold back the
darkness of the Vietnam War, of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, the darkness of
war profiteers and the darkness of politicians who gain from preaching fear and
war.

Late in the evening of May 3rd
after last year’s candlelight march, while sitting on the steps leading from
Taylor Hall to the Prentice parking lot, I was blessed to have a long
conversation with Mary Ann Vecchio. This was another forsythia moment. Mary Ann,
you may recall, is the young woman wailing in grief over the body of Jeffrey
Miller in John Filo’s Pulitzer prize winning photo. Jeff was 20, he had told
his mother the morning of May 4th that he felt he must do the right
thing and attend the antiwar rally at noon. Jeff was 90 yards away, downhill,
from the guard, he was of no threat to them. None of the 4 students killed or 13
wounded were of any possible danger to the Guard.

Mary Ann spoke of the difficult years after
May 4th.Her dealing with the memories of death
and gunfire was worsened by the vilification she received in the press. Mary Ann
and the students on Blanket Hill were called “bums” by Richard Nixon.
Governor Rhodes said the students were “the worst type of people in America”
and that he would use “every weapon possible to eradicate the problem.” The
public felt even more students should have been shot. Mary Ann is now a
registered respiratory therapist in Florida. Mary Ann spoke of how she feels
that she is on the side of life and hope working with her patients.I
tell her after my arrest here in 1977 I began working as an EMT, that I now work
in emergency medicine, one of the few places in the U.S. where everyone is cared
for equally. Talking only yards from the spot where Mary Ann grieved over
Jeffrey, we both felt that out of the darkness of the Vietnam War and May 4th
that we had found just and enduring values.

Mary Ann spoke from the podium the next day
wishing peace to everyone hurt by the tragedy of May 4th, as well as
everyone hurt by the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I find it difficult to
be at peace. Since May 4th 1970 the U.S. has continued an aggressive
and militaristic world posture. Reagan fanned the flames of cruel right wing
wars against the peasantry of Nicaragua and El Salvador. We have wasted
thousands of our troops’ lives, perhaps a million Iraqi and Afghani lives,
along with trillions of dollars we could have spent on health care and
education. Domestically, we have so villainized government and idolized
unregulated profit that 29 miners died in the Upper Big Branch mine disaster.
They died of criminal negligence and corporate arrogance. Meanwhile, Republicans
in the Senate stop attempts to rein in Wall Street gamblers that don’t feel
the pain they inflicted on Main Street.

Mary Ann Vecchio’s story of pain,
suffering and peace, Jeffrey Miller’s story, the story of the Upper Big Branch
miners, your story, is honored every time we work for peace and justice for
everyone, everywhere.